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Talk:Characters/@comment-35399065-20180425174605
The array of different characters of differing personalities and skill-sets that you have the option of playing with is perhaps what keeps this game fresh even after several plays. ' '''As each character brings something different to the table, it persuaded me to create a point-system by which to rate the usefulness of each character a vacuum, based on an assigned score in multiple categories (scores in all categories are then added to yield overall survivor rating). ' '''According to my assessment, characters like Bruno and Marin are grossly underrated on how many votes they have as favorite characters as helpful/useful members of the team. I’ll go into detail below…… The single most important category imo is inventory size. We need food, meds, parts and materials to make the various appliances, tools, and weapons we’ll be needing, as well as burnable fuel to cook with and/or keep warm. So the survivors who can bring in LOTS of these items (or other tradeable items) on a daily basis would be of moderate-high value even if they were poor in every other consideration. As to the score applied to each, I did NOT simply use their raw inventory size, because I believe the problems created if you’re saddled with tiny inventory scavengers (e.g. with the Anton + Cveta scenario) compounds day-over-day…..it’s hard to keep up with your basic needs (even if you resort to stealing from innocents often). Otoh, if you have a Marko or Boris, you can quite frequently “get ahead” of your basic needs, making surviving much easier (even if an unexpected hardship occurs). So where Boris’s inventory is just over twice that of Anton or Cveta, I actually think his value as a scavenger is significantly more than double theirs. ''' '''So I used the following equation to assign a score: size * 1.5 - 5 This yields a minimum score of 7.0 for Anton and Cveta, and a max score of 20.5 for Boris, 17.5 for Marko, 13.0 for Katia, Zlata, and Pavle, and 10.0 for everyone else. The second-most important category is combat/guarding proficiency. Periodically you will have to risk clearing out some bad guys in order to get guns (guns which will be important during the “Outbreak of Crime”, as well as being of excellent trade value if you obtain enough you can easily part with some), as well as fully scavenge a site. With guile and experience (and some cheating by getting advice here and YouTube tutorials) it’s certainly possible to clear many locations with a less proficient fighter (speaking for myself, I’ve cleared the Construction Site with Emilia and Pavle using a hatchet); but it’s certainly easier (especially to manage it without your survivor getting wounded) if you use a more proficient fighter. ''' '''Perhaps more importantly, you need to defend your shelter from the constant threat from raids. Having a proficient guard helps keep your inventory intact (and in keeping people from getting wounded during raids). I’ve lumped their ability to guard the shelter and their ability to melee or clear out hostile locations together into a single category; and fwiw the scores are based on both information available on this site as well as my own impressions seeing how these characters perform in a variety of situations. Theoretical scores range from 4.0 up to 18.0, though I actually didn’t award anyone lower than 4.5 (Cveta). Although she is the only “Combat Proficiency D-Level” player, I would swear (this is admittedly anecdotal, and from limited sample size) she’s just as good (if not marginally better) at guarding the shelter as Anton is. It seems like anytime a raid occurs while Anton is guarding, he gets wounded (+/- stuff gets stolen, at least if he doesn’t have a good weapon; and that’s before the escalating raids of the “Outbreak of Crime”). So I awarded Cveta 4.5, Anton 5.0 (he is “Combat Proficiency C-Level”), 5.5 for Katia, 6 for Zlata, 9 for Emilia, Marin, and Bruno, 10 for Marko and Pavle, 15 for Arica, 16 for Boris, and Roman gets the full 18. The third-most important category is *special skills. Survivors are awarded a score between 4 and 13. *Roman, Pavle, Boris, and Marko all get the lowest score (4.0), because the talents that make them special are already accounted for in other categories: ' '*Boris’s special use is in his huge inventory size, and his combat-readiness. ' '*Roman is a fighter already assessed highly in the last category. ' '*As far as I can tell, Marko’s ability as a “Skilled Scavenger” is entirely accounted for in his large inventory size; he doesn’t see scavenge piles that the other characters don’t, he doesn’t scavenge each pile any faster (or quieter) than the others, and he doesn’t appear to find additional items in scavenge piles that the other characters would miss (have tested about a dozen piles at 3 different locations against both Arica and Bruno). ' '*Pavle’s foot-speed is accounted for in the fourth category yet to come. Emilia, Anton, and Cveta also get the lowest score simply because they do not possess any special skills or exceptional qualities. I've given Zlata 4.5 (just +0.5 from the minimum) for her ability to comfort others, which might rarely be of minor use. Arica’s quiet sneaking ability does come in handy from time to time, so I’ve awarded her 7.0. Katia is skilled at bargaining (have tested against others, and she definitely yields consistently better results on your trades than the others); this is handy since Franko comes by every third day, and you’ll frequently be doing some trading at other scavenging locations, too. So I’ve awarded her 12.0. And finally I come to Bruno and Marin (this is where I think they get quite underrated). Let’s start with Bruno…… If you feed a “Hungry” survivor an uncooked raw food item, his/her status only improves to “Still Hungry”; but if you cook it first, they’re not hungry at all after. Bruno can cook that item at cost of 3 waters and 1 consumable; all other characters require 5 waters and 2 consumables. Fwiw, I frequently will build a rat-trap and bait it with fertilizer; this will catch rat(s) about once every 2-3 days (yielding TWO raw food items). So I’m feeding my survivors with raw food items often (and thus these cooking savings are relevant). ' '''And if I have Bruno on the team, I’ll generally opt to build a distillery to distill Moonshine (for trade). Bruno can brew a bottle of Moonshine at a cost of 3 waters, 3 sugars, and 1 consumable. All other characters require 4 waters, 4 sugars, and 1 consumable (rendering the enterprise not particularly profitable). Bruno can also refine that to pure alcohol more cheaply. ' '''Or if you opt to make an Improved Herbal Workshop, Bruno can make meds at half the costs of all other characters. The savings of all the above really add up over the course of the game. With Marin, he uses less materials to make many of the things you’ll need to get rolling on (particularly early in the game). Iirc, he only uses 8 components to make a crowbar, whereas other characters require 10. He’ll use fewer materials to build all major appliances (heaters, stoves, etc), and unless I’m mistaken also uses fewer materials to improve your workshops. That’s valuable savings----again: especially early in the game when you’re racing to get things built in preparation for winter or crime events. His usefulness arguably declines as the game goes on (after you’ve already built/improved all the things you need); more on this below in a separate category. So based on the value of these special skills, I’ve awarded both Bruno and Marin the top possible score of 13. ''' '''The fourth-most important category is foot-speed. Whether it’s evading danger of a sniper in some locations, escaping other dangers in hostile locations, charging attack an armed opponent, getting a LARGE map area fully scavenged before dawn, or just generally getting everything done around the shelter that you’re wanting to get done in a day (especially that first day where you’re scavenging your shelter), speed can be important. I’ve allocated a scale of 1 to 6 for footspeed, and it’s based mostly on my eye-balling how fast they seem. For all his other positive attributes, Boris is slow as hell and gets the 1. Anton isn’t much better (a 2); Cveta a 2.5, Katia, Zlata, and Marin are 3.0, Bruno, and Emilia are 3.5, 4.0 for Arica and Roman, 5.0 each for Marko, and Pavle gets the 6. The fifth-most important category is Non-Redundancy. I’m talking about characters whose skills/attributes overlap. For instance, adding Marko to a team that already has Boris is sort of superfluous: the ONE thing for which Marko is somewhat elite (inventory size) is something Boris is even better at; and we can’t send them both out to scavenge. Or adding Arica (a good fighter) to a team that already has Roman (or vice versa) doesn’t add much. Survivors like Bruno, Marin, or Katia, on the other hand, always have additive value (because no one else possesses their unique skills). ''' '''I didn’t make this category a huge needle-mover, just a scale of 1 to 4. Bruno, Marin, and Katia get the full 4 pts each. I gave Roman (the single BEST fighter), Boris (strong fighter and largest inventory), and Arica (a very good fighter who also can sneak quietly) 2.5 pts each. Marko was awarded 2 pts (he’s pretty additive if added to any team that doesn’t already have Boris, although slightly less so if they already have Katia, Pavle, or Zlata). Pavle and Zlata each get 1.5 pts (his speed might rarely be useful above what the others offer (ditto Zlata's comforting??), and their inventory of 12 will be a slight improvement to any team that doesn't have one of Katia, Marko, or Boris). Anton, Cveta, and Emilia again get the lowest 1 pt because they don’t bring anything special to the table (though can still carry out basic functions: hence the 1-pt minimum). The sixth-most important category is Portability of late-game insert. By “late-game insert” I’m referring to whether or not their usefulness can be applied in full measure if they’re the “extra” character who arrives around Day 18. This is a very small consideration, where the score awarded ranges from 0 to 1. Bruno and Katia are the only players I’m awarding the full 1 point to, as their talents can instanting apply, and for the rest of the game. Boris, Marko, and Roman get 0.75 pts each. Arica and Pavle get 0.5 pts each. Zlata and Marin each get 0.25 pts (remember how I said Marin’s skills are most useful EARLY in the game?). Anton, Cveta, and Emilia again get the minimum (0). ''' '''Lastly, I have a couple of “taxes” (or potential negatives subtracted from their totals). The first is an Addiction Tax. These are deductions (from 0 to -2) from those who have addictions that will draw off your inventory (of cigarettes or coffee) if you don’t immediately trade those items. I assess the smoking addiction as a larger tax because cigarettes (even the roll-up cigs) are better trade items than coffee (the smokers tend to go thru more of that inventory daily than the coffee drinkers, too). So the smokers (Boris, Bruno, Arica, Roman) are assessed -2 pts. The coffee drinkers (Emilia, Katia, Marin) are assessed -0.5 pts each. And I’ve assessed Anton a similar -0.4 because although he has no listed vices (even says he’s “Abstinent”), there was one time while idle that he smoked one of the cigarettes I had in inventory; I was pretty surprised. Cveta, Marko, Zlata, and Pavle do not have any addiction tax (awarded a zero). Then there’s the Emotional Tax. This is a tax (0 to -1) applied to the score of those whose “sensitivities” can be a burden. I’m talking about the characters who will get sad if you have to steal, sad if you have to kill (even if it’s killing soldiers). These are certainly the characters who seem the most likeable and honorable; ironically the characters with no major emotional tax generally seem like self-centered douche-bags. But within the context of the game and what you’re trying to accomplish (survival), a lack of emotional hang-ups is actually advantageous. ''' '''The characters who do have a tendency toward getting sad are often the same characters who will become “content” if do something good; but I frankly don’t see any benefit of the “content” status (as far as survival is concerned). They don’t perform their tasks better/faster than normal while content; but they are slower when sad (and risks of suicide or leaving the group---potentially stealing supplies----if you allow it to get to “depressed”). The major sensitive characters are Boris, Zlata, and Katia (each get -1). I gave Anton -0.75 because he’s sort of a whiny bugger who quickly gets sad if hungry, sick, or wounded (which can be often because he’s such a generally useless character). Additionally, I’d read that if he leaves the group, he’ll be a douche and steal supplies. Arica, Cveta (who, interestingly, I didn’t find as sensitive as Boris for example), Marko, Marin, and Pavle all get -0.5. Bruno, Roman, and Emilia get 0’s, as they’re relative sociopaths. I’m still open to modifying the parameters of this ranking system, but as things stand, my final rating for each player are as follows: Boris - 41.75 Marko - 38.75 Bruno - 38.5 Marin - 38.25 Roman - 37.25 Katia - 37.0 Arica - 36.5 Pavle - 34.5 Zlata - 27.25 Emilia - 27.0 Cveta - 18.5 Anton - 17.85